Releasing KRA’s full year results, Commissioner General John Njiraini stated that the amount was however against the exchequer’s target of Sh1.2174 trillion which KRA missed.

A total of Sh810.2 billion worth of domestic taxes were collected, which was against the targeted Sh834.3 billion. Additionally, Sh386 billion worth of customs were collected.

Customs were also largely to blame for the failure to meet the target. According to the Secretary General, apart from excise duty which performed well, import duty did not perform well at just 9.8 percent.

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) registered strong growths in comparison to the employment growth at almost 13 percent.

“The overall performance for the year is consistent with what we had expected; the areas that were strong, such as consumption taxes, continued to be strong while there was a reversal in income taxes.

“We regard this as positive in the sense that despite the various challenges we faced, we were able to increase revenues with over Sh140 billion during the financial year,” Njiraini said.

The challenges in question include the country’s lower performance of the GDP last year which stood at 5.8 percent against the projected 6.1 percent. There was also a decline on import volumes and values which declined by 13.6 percent.

Moreover, there was a depressed corporate performance including the banking sector and a slow growth in employment at just 4.5 percent.

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“The corporate sector had problems whereby banks and businesses did not do well. For instance, there were issues with non-performing loans which signalled difficulties in the business environment,” he said.